Friday, September 30, 2016

Donald Trump’s vile words are no surprise. They unmask him as a sexual predator, but his predatory business dealings, also made public, should get equal attention. The predator turned presidential candidate disturbs me less than continued support given him.

I can get trapped into arguing against an irrational partisan who backs Trump, but it doesn’t help me or her or anyone else.

We all need to get away from the garbage. To cleanse our minds, I offer the words of Parker Palmer in my next post.

Hillary and Donald September 30, 2016

I’m watching the campaign with fear that the United States might
actually sink into the morass of Donald Trump as president. I confess my obsession
with this. It’s hard to think about much else.

Marilyn wants me to tie my subjects of discussion to religion and
spirituality. Very well. I observe my obsession as a personal challenge in spiritual
maturation. I have to deal with it, and writing about it helps to dispel it.

I’m distressed by voters’ virulent dislike of Hillary. Why? Among
the reasons apparent, I keep coming back to the one I gave before: Hillary’s
false front.

Her falseness follows the model of many politicians. As a defense
against criticism, they do away with transparency.
Early in the political game,
Hillary was attacked by Arkansans who disliked the girl from Chicago because that
proud, brainy professional didn’t look or act properly submissive as any wife
should. Hillary Rodham didn’t even take the name of her husband. She was a
partner in a prestigious law firm.

I started watching her when she got flak in Arkansas for not
conforming to their idea of feminine. At the time I was waking up from my
previous dismissal of feminists and becoming one myself.

The pattern for Hillary was set. The public didn’t like her real
self; she developed a false self—took her husband’s name and acted housewifely,
along with a hard shell of defensive secretiveness. This is the image that
turns off voters. I don’t like it either. It doesn’t tell us who she really is.

People who know Hillary well say that, out of the public eye,
while interacting with a small, comfortable group, she’s warm and funny, a joy
to be with.

A segment I heard on NPR with an interviewer from Time magazine points to the problem
between voters and Hillary. In a one-on-one conversation with the interviewer,
Hillary told this story:

When Chelsea left for college Mom missed her achingly.
She went into Chelsea’s room, closed the door, sat on the bed, and quietly
drank in her daughter’s presence. While Hillary was sitting there, the door
opened, and Bill walked in. Each learned that the other had been doing this.

Eagerly the interviewer asked, “May I use this story?”

“Absolutely not,” was the answer. It revealed that Hillary is her
own worst enemy. Here was a chance to show her human side. It’s exactly what
voters want and don’t see in her.

Both Donald and Hillary are tough as nails, but one of them also
has depth. Hillary Clinton is motivated by a sincere desire to improve the
lives of others. Blacks support her because she has aligned with them for 40
years. It started when she was still Hillary Rodham. She gets it when
marginalized people speak out about their oppression, and her policy-wonk mind
goes to work searching for ways to help them.

Donald Trump is motivated by a sincere desire to improve life for himself. When Hillary in the debate charged, “. . . he didn’t pay any
federal income tax,” Donald threw in, “That makes me smart.”

Some on-the-fence voters were appalled. “That’s offensive. I pay
taxes,” said one. “Another person would be in jail for that,” said another.

Hillary's flaws pale in comparison with Donald Trump’s adolescent
bullying and bragging. I don’t see how anyone who watched and listened to the
debate can possibly consider him presidential material. His face during the
debate reminds me of a lost teenage boy, one who lashes out for reasons
unknown to himself.

The only way I can understand support for Trump rests on this description
I heard:

Trump comes with a baseball bat and whacks at people. His skill in
trashing others acts as a magnet for people with resentments and fears unknown
to themselves. He operates on the dictum, “Repeat a lie often enough and people
will believe it.” Uninformed people believe his lies. In this campaign, the
most malicious lie they believe is that Hillary Clinton is a crook.

The real crook is Donald Trump. There’s so much evidence of this,
I decided not to try setting it out, at least in this post.

Hillary and Donald August 3, 2016

Erase all the vitriol from Republicans, all the mindless bashing without substance, and we're left with a candidate who has no more flaws than almost all candidates for the office in history, including the greatest, such as Lincoln and FDR. And we're left with credentials that may surpass those of any other candidate for the office in history.

Hillary Clinton's tragic flaw is defensiveness; she is not naturally comfortable in the public eye but learned to be there for the sake of her work for people. She is not transparent. It led to her few lies in public and her famous secretiveness, her refusal to disclose details, which makes her look slippery. That is a misunderstanding. She only is too defensive, and she's not a good public speaker. Her delivery sounds phony, insincere. I wish she had some of Bill's showmanship.

But Hillary Clinton has the capacity to be an outstanding president. I won't even begin to list her impressive accomplishments for the well-being of others, beginning with children and women, going on to other groups, and to the entire society. One phrase sums her up well—a work horse, not a show horse.

Her opponent is a show horse, not a work horse. This is how I explain his popularity, otherwise inexplicable to me. He has name recognition, all that's necessary for uninformed voters. How else to explain support for such a man?
Oh, and he's fun to watch. I often laugh at his adolescent remarks. I hope enough voters can grow up enough to make sure the man does not actually become president. I dread the possibility. In November, unfortunately after the election, Donald Trump is due to sit in a courtroom as a defendant in a civil trial accusing him of fraud.

“I read every one of them, some of them several times.” As proof,
she told me when I started the blog—2007. I was speechless. “They’re
interesting, wonderful, illuminating, just wonderful. Why aren’t you writing
more?”

After some stuttering, I listed the things that keep me busy. “Each post is an essay. It
takes me a long time to write those, and I have so many other things to do.” Often a post I intend to dash off quickly turns into
lengthy labor. I reminded her that I’m working on a memoir.

She asked me whether I was thinking of not doing any more
blogging. I confessed that I was.

“I hope I’m changing your mind.”

I said one thing keeping me from blogging is the political
situation. I’m concerned that our beloved country will actually get Donald
Trump as president. I asked how she would respond to some political posts.

“If they are connected with religion and spirituality.” But she
liked “Hillary and Donald.”

What happens now I don’t know, but I decided to post this as a
kind of pledge to Marilyn. Otherwise I might renege on my promise to continue blogging.

I’m trying to learn a new way of writing. My posts have been
educational. They come from a teacher who is lecturing—sharing knowledge,
drawing conclusions, and supporting those conclusions. In my memoir, by
contrast, I’m trying to reveal insights through my own life story and trying to
reach a less academic readership.

It’s even slower than writing essays, and delving into my own
psyche springs surprises on me.

As I reflect on my past, I realize things about myself that I’d
missed before—more revelations in my slow journey toward emotional maturity. Oh,
the joys of growing up. Never-ending.

P.S. September 30, 2016

The really astonishing thing about Marilyn reading every single post in my blog is that she went online for the first time about a month ago. Her accomplishment is remarkable.

Thank you to all who responded to “Where have you been?” Here’s one of my favorites:

And here I thought my computer had eaten them somehow!
By the way, someday you should do a piece on one of my least favorite New Testament stories, The Woman Taken In Adultery. [Jn 8:1-11] Really, adultery is a two-person sport. Where is the man taken in adultery? (I doubt it was a lesbian relationship either.)
Anyway, glad to see you're back.

Welcome

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In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet says, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” This is a two-edged challenge. It invites believers to rethink their dogmas, and it challenges people without faith to rethink their certainty that everything religious is bunk.